The semi-weekly fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1887-09-23
COAL MINERS STRIKE.
Twenty Thousand Men Idle in
the Lehigh Region.
An Increase of Fifteen Per Cent.
in Wages Demanded.

Twenty thousand miners and laborers III
the Lehigh Districts of the anthracite coal
region on Monday morning responded
to the order to quit work, which
was issued by the Joint Committee
of the Knights of Labor and the Miners
and Laborers' Amalgamated Association
and what promised to be one of the longest
and most bitter strikes in that region since
1873 was begun. The men demanded an in
crease of ID per cent. in their wages. The OPP
orators refused this and refused to arbltrate,
as they have agreements with their own men
to work out the year on a schedule adopted last
January. Committees of the several local
organizations waited upon A Pardee & Co,
Cove Bros. & Co. at Dritton, and other
operators but the operators refused to
recognize the committees
Thirty collieries in the Lehigh region were
affected by the strike, and all of them were
idle. At several of them it was attempted
to run the breakers with the aid of few
Hungarians and Italians, but after running
for several hours they were obliged to shut
down. In accordance with the OrderOf theJOint
committee all the engineers and pump men
remained at work, but only to do what dead
work necessary in order to keep the
water out of the mines, and they were under
strict orders not to hoist a single carload of
coal.
At Dritton all the men, numbering over
1000, were ordered to go to work at once or
else take their tools from the mines and go to
the OIllCe anu SeU CHelT 1ney T6luSeu 10
go to work and all were Immediately dis
charged. At present, says a dispatch on
Monday, the men all quiet.
but should the operators carry out
their expressed purpose to operate the mines
with Hungarian and other imported labor,
serious trouble and possibly bloodshed is
anticipated. 1t is believed that the strike will
not be adjusted for many months unless mu-
tually satisfactory agreement is arrived at this
week Work will be continued in the Schuyl-
kill and other regions, and the Lehigh
operators will have all their orders filled
there. There is no fear that the price of coal
will be materially affected, as the orders can
be easily filed in the other regions.
The men who have gone out are employed
by the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, the
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and
number of other companies and individual
operators.
The strike affects nearly all the mines in
the upper and lower Lehigh regions but not
including the Wyoming district the
Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley mines in the
Schuylkill region.
In reference to the great strike of the coal
miners in the upper and lower Lehigh regions,
a Philadelphia dispatch says General Mcleod,
of the Reading Railroad, said:
There has been strike of the employees
of the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and
Iron Company and we do not expect any. In
trouble. We know what the demands of the
men are and they understand their
position thoroughly, and we can adjust the
difference without trouble. No reports of
strikes have been received, and we believe
that all of are at work and will not
go out. The strike may have some effect upon
the coal trade, but we shall not feel it,"